The Representation of Drugs Via Microfeatures in Breaking Bad Essay Sample
The Representations of Drugs through micro characteristics in modern American telecasting – Breaking Bad and Weeds “Yes. there is a Blacklist—a codification of censoring imposed by Washington—that about everyone in Hollywood sacredly adheres to. The Blacklist is so omnipresent that most people are non even cognizant of it any more. It merely is. What is on this Blacklist? The D-word. Drugs. Specifically. any reference of illicit drugs as gratifying. productive. lighting. or mending. ” – ( Drugtext. Anonymous. ( 2008 ) . An Open Letter To The Entertainment Industry. )
Over the last 50 old ages drugs have cemented their topographic point in popular civilization as one of the ‘big issues’ of society. a capable covered day-to-day in public intelligence and media and the premier object of infinite movies. Television shows and books. from the assault rifle-wielding top banana Scarface to the farinaceous streets of America in The Wire. In recent old ages. American Television has seen a moving ridge of high-budget critically acclaimed play influenced by such shows as condemnable play such as The Sopranos or The Wire. and in recent old ages led by successes like Mad Men and. in bend. the drug based play Breaking Bad. The thesis of this survey is to compare and contrast the building of Breaking Bad’s drug representation against that of the modern US Television series Weeds. both with their ain takes on the drug issue.
Interrupting Bad has become the most successful of all drug focused Television shows. and so one of the biggest in modern Television as a whole. Premiering in 2008 on the US overseas telegram channel after a 3 twelvemonth unsuccessful run of pitching by author Vince Gilligan ( The Telegraph. Martin Chilton. ( 2012 ) Interrupting Bad: Vince Gilligan Interview ) . the show has progressed to a entire tally of 5 progressively critically acclaimed ( the first half of season 5 having a 99 % positive response. as based on Metacritic ) and highly-viewed seasons. the concluding episodes scheduled to air in early 2013. The show portrays Walter White. a chemical science mastermind turned high school professor who is diagnosed with phase 3 lung malignant neoplastic disease. He meets old pupil Jesse Pinkman. now a drug trader on the tally from Walt’s DEA brother in jurisprudence Hank. and decides to utilize his chemical science cognition to spouse up with Jesse and cook Methedrine in order to garner money to go forth his household after he’s passed on.
Puting such a heavy focal point on drug industry and both sides of the trade. Breaking Bad has an equivocal representation of drugs that dips in and out of the moral spectrum. but leans to a great extent towards negative anti-drug intensions. The Showtime and Lionsgate comedy play Weeds takes a different spin on the middle-class drug series nevertheless. doing it a good lucifer for a contrasting survey. Created by US TV author Jenji Johan and running from 2005 before reasoning on its 8th season in 2012. the show follows individual female parent Nancy Bodwin in her command to back up her two boies via marihuana merchandising after her husband’s decease. The show has parallels to Breaking Bad in the narrative thought of selling drugs for the household. portraying deeper degrees of the drug concern as the series goes on.
The universe of Interrupting Bad is farinaceous and upbeat. portraying a huge array of colorful characters and scenes across the societal spectrum while staying a high grade of pragmatism. Vince Gilligan constructs a mix of dark temper and moral struggle in the show that contrasts the unsafe and deadly underworld of drug civilization with the mundane universe of lawful life. ensuing in a scene that holds both positive and negative intensions to the drug issue. One of the cardinal characteristics of representation used in the show is that of coloring material. an indispensable component in the ocular building that connotes specific significances throughout the entireness of the programme – a item to which Gilligan takes about an obsessional degree of attention ( NY Times. David Segal. ( 2011 ) .
The Dark Art Of ‘Breaking Bad’ ) . In the beginning of the series. the universe of Walter White is both visually and narratively mundane. Walter is populating a dead-end life with his married woman and handicapped boy. learning chemical science. his life’s passion. to groups of unenthusiastic high school pupils. after discontinuing his founded place at the scientific research organisation Grey Matter. In relation. the mise-en-scene of the universe is dull. each puting characteristics small coloring material or stylized shootings and natural lighting is used to denote a recognizable. mean universe. Walter White himself epitomizes these intensions ( a large tool in BB ) . have oning a stereotyped middle-aged teacher’s outfit – ecru jumpers. brown pants and a simple haircut – and Bryan Cranston’s public presentation portraying a hesitant and weak-willed adult male.
In crisp contrast. the debut of drugs into the narrative sees a parallel addition in both coloring material and manner. the bright loose-fitting black and reds of Jesse Pinkman’s vesture antagonizing the dull of Walt. and the scenes altering from the Greies and browns of mundane life to the rich bluish skies of the Albuquerque desert. This subject of bright vs dull continues through the entireness of the show. the two sides of the show’s universe playing off each other to organize a clear intension that the drug universe is more exciting than an mundane life. However. while the law-breaking life is surely vivacious. this characteristic becomes more relevant as a warning as the show progresses – the suggestion that coloring material connotes a signifier of morality. bright reds bespeaking condemnable purposes ( Jesse’s foremost outfits. the Methedrine lab in season 3 onwards. the forepart of top banana Gus Fring’s eating house frontage ) while xanthous connotes strong danger ( get worsing Jesse. Gus Fring’s suits. the desert littorals of the show’s draws ) . to call two illustrations.
Weeds takes less of a dramatic attack to its usage of conventionalized micro characteristics nevertheless. and chooses to maintain more of a consistent manner in its universe building. The universe of Weeds is calendered and glamourous. using high-key conventionalized lighting and vivacious colorss to imply a entirely exciting universe both in and out of the drug trade. Nancy’s clients are largely mundane people. her friends and societal neighbors for illustration. giving her merchandising of drugs a grade of community. Bing partially a comedy nevertheless. Weed exaggerates these characteristics to underscore the eccentric nature of the middle-class female parent going a drug trader. and this is relevant non merely in the show itself but besides the promotional runs – calendered magazine like exposures of a sitting Nancy in ‘pin-up’ manner. colorful shootings of the express joying characters in stereotypically household scenes. such as a grassy park or eating house – which advertises Weeds as a high-budget comedy-drama. with drugs more as a characteristic than the chief premiss.
In the instance of word picture. Interrupting Bad plays really much on the corruption of the dominant political orientations environing drug-related characters. and stays largely off from stereotyped representations. One of the most outstanding illustrations of this is the multi-millionaire drug top banana Gustavo Fring. who is introduced in season 3 and becomes. in narrative footings. the show’s primary adversary. Gus’s character represents the real-life modern drug concern: professional. organised and highly cautious. a crisp difference from the violent street civilization that the show’s original drug leaders Tucow and Crazy 8 occupied. Using his ownership of a big concatenation of fast nutrient eating houses. Gus constructs a moneymaking drug imperium behind a wholly conspicuous image. a friendly. guiltless man of affairs involved in charity and fund-raising around the community. Wearing smart. well-coordinated suits and spectacless and about ever in his concern character. Gus challenges the dominant political orientation of a rich drug Godhead to a dramatic extent – so much so that he is wholly ignored by Walter ( and. via careful camerawork. the audience ) on his first debut to the show. an ordered meeting between the two drug leaders – playing on the psychological thought of “invisibility” via obvious facts ( Gustav Ichheiser. ( 1949 ) .
Why We Are Often “Blinded” To Obvious Facts. American Journal Of Sociology. Volume 5. 1-4 ) . as Gus’s character is affluent. intelligent and close yet remains undetected by the DEA because of his attention in utilizing these qualities as a frontage for his existent operations. Antagonizing this representation of a top banana is Gus’s long clip enemy Don Eladio. the leader of the Mexican drug trust that recurs via assorted members throughout the show as adversaries. While Gus portrays an image more kindred to a plaything store director. Don Eladio supports the authoritative ‘Scarface’ political orientation of a rich condemnable foreman. munificent alien place. open-shirted vesture and jewellery and a big crew of escorts and adult females. A comparatively minor character in Breaking Bad. Don Eladio is introduced via flashbacks of Gus’s first experiences in the drug concern. Don Eladio being at the tallness of power and meeting Gus and ( later killing ) his spouse for a major trade. Representing the stereotyped drug foreman. Don Eladio has clear intensions of power through his wealth and influence in the flashbacks. nevertheless he is finally cheated and killed by Gus’s organised mind on re-meeting. This serves to overthrow the political orientations associated with Eladio’s stereotype. while once it was the mansion-owning Al Pacino top banana who held the power in the dominant representations. it is now the cold computation of the man of affairs who leads the modern drug trade.
One other of import component in Breaking Bad’s representations is the debut of Walt’s professional alter-ego Heisenberg. a character he invents for namelessness and bullying when doing trades with the higher foremans. In comparing to the edgy Walt. Heisenberg is about an opposite in personality. a harder. more confident demeanor is taken on by Walt while in character – a characteristic which in itself could be said to associate to Levi Strauss’s theory on binary resistance ( Pieter J. Foure ( 2007 ) . Media Studies. Volume 1: Media History. Media and Society. Juta. 249-251. ) ; the two split sides of the character’s personality represented through a authoritative black/white political orientation. Black being the optimum word here. as Heisenberg is denoted by an all-black outfit. dark glassess and pork-pie chapeau – a collective of stereotyped condemnable cliches assembled by Walt as his narcissistic political orientation of a drug foreman. The character is about amusing in visual aspect. and is foremost introduced to the full via a secret trade Walt arranges in a junkyard. overpowering stereotype of the state of affairs taking Jesse to cry “This is merely similar every non-criminal’s thought of a drug meet” . This in peculiar is a scene that could be suggested at demoing Interrupting Bad’s post-modern representations of drug civilization. a lampoon of the Hollywood fuelled ‘super-villain’ political orientation of the category A trader.
In rather a blunt contrast. Weeds employs rather a heavy usage of stereotypes in its characters and scenes. which is pushed and emphasised throughout the series as a comedic characteristic. the thought of ‘false appearances’ . Weeds plays on the construct of subcultures through this representation. the impression that a ignored group of people come together through a shared feeling of bitterness or ideals ( Hebdige. Dick ( 1979 ) . Subculture: The Meaning of Style. Routledge. ) . which is found in Weeds by the aggregation of dead-end middle-class characters and their subsequent engagement in Nancy’s drug operation. Nancy Bodwin represents the dominant political orientation of a middle-class American female parent – societal. fashionable and attractive. as seen in shows like Desperate Housewives or Sex and the City. Busying the suburban lifestyle via her late husband’s technology calling. Nancy employs a mix of delicacy motherly appeal – get downing her condemnable calling via marihuana assorted Brownies – and sexual temptingness in her dealing. scoring those in her societal circle and beyond to come on her concern and branding her merchandise. and sub textually herself. ‘MILF’ .
This blithe attack to drug civilization takes a significant spring from the trenchant representations in Breaking Bad. and while the character of Nancy supports the stereotyped image of a individual female parent in US Television. she besides challenges the political orientations environing drug civilization – the temper stemming from the thought of an ordinary female parent covering drugs in a apparently ‘nice community’ . A large illustration of stereotype use in Weeds is that of the trusts and bing traders who are introduced at assorted points throughout the series and finally play a big portion in the narrative. The felons involved in the packs are typical of the political orientation. clad in athleticss cogwheel and tattoos. backward and aggressive. and colored in ethnicity – indications that support the stereotypes associated with condemnable civilization ( taking to criticisms from some ) on characters that retain a high grade of power. While Nancy is the ‘fish out of water’ in the drug universe. the trusts symbolise the existent leaders of the concern. similar in some ways to Breaking Bad. nevertheless it finally subverts the stereotype by taking the power from these political orientations.
The chief ideological focal point of Breaking Bad is the moral diminution of a individual introduced to a life of offense. Godhead Vince Gilligan’s original construct for the show in fact being ‘Mr Chips transforming into Scarface’ . Drugs originally serve as a salvaging grace for Walt. a out and moneymaking universe seen merely by Walt through movies like Scarface ( Gilligan uses this construct rather far. Walt is in fact demoing the movie to his boy in a metaphor-heavy scene in Season 5 ) and Hank’s heroic narratives. one that while unsafe. provides a manner out of a dead-end life. a manner to supply for his household in his staying life-time and go the masculine breadwinner he one time was. Through drugs. Walt easy regains assurance and maleness through his patterned advance to kingpin position. the success of his and Jesse’s concern giving him back his scientific virtue and taking to one scene in Season 5’s “Say My Name” where Walter voices to his spouse his eventual pride and pleasance of being ‘the best at something’ . in this instance cooking crystal Methedrine. By the point of the concluding season. Walt has lost his original intent for cooking. but has become immensely rich. non so interested in utilizing the money as merely having it – as a gage of his power.
But while Breaking Bad clearly shows the net incomes and personal addition made possible by the drug concern. everything from the ocular and character representations to the full narrative connote one chief point: Drugs destruct the life that Walt intended to protect with them. Even while declining to go a consumer of drugs. the procedure of engagement in the trade erodes his moral nature and the decease and devastation that the trade brings desensitises him into accepting events like the slaying of his ex-lab spouse Gale in the coda of Season 3. or the decease of an guiltless kid in Season 5 as ‘part of the territory’ . go throughing them off as hazards to foster his appreciation on the drug trade and power that he assembles over the entireness of Breaking Bad. In add-on. the caring household he possessed at the start of the show drifts further and further off from him. who in bend loses involvement in being portion of them at all. his married woman Skyler finally acknowledging that she’s no longer frightened of the trade. but Walt himself.
In decision. while the premises between the two are similar in narrative. Interrupting Bad and Weeds have differing representations of the modern drug universe in their characters and political orientations. While Weeds plays on stereotyped thoughts for temper. buoy uping the issue of drugs with a glamourous representation. Interrupting Bad high spots the strong moral struggles of the modern drug concern. using complex intensions through micro characteristics and word picture that. while decidedly denoting the pros of drug industry. function to stand for the devastation that drugs bring upon those involved in its concern.
